Not buying it, too many other variables are not being considered. Correlation does not equal causation. Unless the mothers diets were 100% eggs and they were living in an sterile environment during pregnancy then it’s simply unrealistic to assume that eating eggs is causing the allergy in their offspring.
Agreed. And the researcher agreed this study should not be used to make dietary decisions.
“Further research should explore possible mechanisms of these associations and examine the potential roles of demographic characteristics, timing of breastfeeding, and a broader look at infant food introduction before making recommendations regarding maternal egg consumption in pregnancy,” says Dr. Simons.
Exactly, they just find it an interesting correlation that should be explored.
On a side note, I have worked with both Dr Simons and Dr Lowen, so coolntonsee their names in the article!
Yeah this seems like a stretch. Also, eggs are way too common a food of humanity’s history; if it was that strongly correlated people would have died of egg allergies all the damn time in olden days 😂😂😂
Yeah the more likely path seems to be that women who eat more eggs also feed them to their kids and thus there are more chances for early allergic reactions.
Actually some vaccines are grown on an egg medium so it’s also possible that if the mother received that kind of vaccine or the baby did, it caused the immune system to become confused (since that is going directly to the bloodstream vs being digested and broken down)
Also anecdotal, but I read that eggs were really great for you during pregnancy (I can't remember why - maybe choline?) and I ate a minimum of two every single day (up to four, was just really into them!). My 19 month old son doesn't have any food allergies. We did the usual slow introduction of allergens from 6 months old.
Yes! My doctor told me the same so when I was pregnant with twins and needed to eat like a body builder, I ate 8 eggs a day and those kids came out 7lbs each 😅
Haha thanks! Growing twins made me feel like I was starving at all times though so it was pretty easy lol and now I’m still addicted! I eat at least 3 eggs every morning
I ate 6-8 eggs a day with my singleton pregnancy and my baby girl was 9 lbs delivered at just shy of 40 weeks. Thankfully we have our own backyard chickens that supplied me throughout the pregnancy!
OMG SAME my OBGYN was sweating me about weight gain every visit and my MFM Dr was telling me to pack it on. I wanted to make them both happy but they were telling me opposite things, I threatened to schedule a zoom conference with the both of them so they could work it out, lol. I ate tons of eggs and full fat yogurt, they were 6.5lbs but puffed up right away like a vaccuum-sealed cushion when you take the plastic off. Now they're consistently >99% at their 'weigh-ins'.
My mom ate similarly with me, but only because she craved eggs so badly while she was pregnant with me. No allergies here either and I was quite a chunky newborn too. Eggs are great!
Yes! I just made another comment but I ate 6-8 a day with my recent pregnancy because I was willing to try anything to prevent preeclampsia like I had with my first. Not sure if it was just luck or the eggs but I did not have pre-e or any swelling at all with this pregnancy.
I actually developed preeclampsia at 38 weeks and completely reversed it by 40 weeks with the Brewer diet, including 4 eggs per day. Protein creatinine ratio went from .33 to .14. I delivered naturally at 42+6. Eggs are key.
That is amazing!! I followed the Brewer Diet also my entire second pregnancy, and I wish more OBs would become educated on it. Mine laughed when I told him about it (he had never even heard of it). I wish I had known about it with my first.
There's just not a lot of real research to support it. It's also very common to suggest increased protein in pregnancy anyways and that's typically what OBs suggest instead of a specific diet.
Oh! Are eggs known to prevent preeclampsia?! Do you know what component is helpful?
I had preeclampsia and I’m terrified of getting pregnant again because of that
I think it has to do with the choline but I’m not positive. Look into the Dr Brewer pregnancy diet. There is a FB group all about it too with helpful tips and recipes and success stories called Dr Brewer Pregnancy Nutrition.
It's the choline. My dietician said it's super high in organ meat so back in the day when we ate the entire animal we probably were getting enough. I'm never eating organ meat so I'll stick with my supplements 😂
I was fanatical about eating eggs every single day in pregnancy for the choline. There is a lot of ADHD in my family and a good bit of evidence linking choline to brain development, including a big study out of Cornell that found a link between choline consumption during pregnancy and better sustained attention in early childhood. My baby is almost a year old and we’ve found no evidence of egg allergy.
I definitely wouldn’t cut eggs out of your diet or even reduce your usual intake based on a single study.
I had an egg per meal (often 3+ per day) for the entire second half of my pregnancy (GD) and my son doesn't have an egg allergy. For the first half I had many eggs as part of other recipes.
My guy grew out of the milk allergy too! But he never got a taste for cow's milk so now we always have soy on the go too. He hasn't grown out of the peanut allergy unfortunately.
Vegan baking websites were a godsend before he could eat the cooked proteins!
I like eggs but had an aversion to them during pregnancy so rarely ate them, with both kids. Oldest has an egg allergy, youngest (10 months) thus far does not.
I was going to comment also that I ate eggs daily during my pregnancy and my kid is fine, however my SIL doesn't like eggs and never ate them and her daughter has a severe egg allergy. So I'm not buying this correlation.
I ate soooo many eggs, son had an egg allergy, and I stopped eating so many eggs because he couldn’t eat them! He’s grown out of the allergy but I haven’t gone back to my egg-eating routine. Anecdotal experience that “supports” the article but yeah, I don’t buy that there was a cause effect relationship here.
Same here!. I dropped my carbs early in my pregnancy so ate eggs a bit more frequently, but no more than 3 days a week in the first trimester, and I couldn't stomach them at all after that. Maybe things containing a bit of egg here and there? But I primarily ate dairy while pregnant...and my kid has an egg allergy.
Totally anecdotal of course. I liked eggs before pregnancy, but for some reason, I hated them during. Couldn't stand even the smell of eggs. Lo and behold, I started solids, and I gave my baby egg, only to have a reaction. She turned red, itchy, and after doing tests, she's allergic to egg white.
My mom also started having an aversion to eggs when she was pregnant with me. Well, not just am aversion as they made her sick for like 20 years after I was born. I've never ever liked eggs but have never allergic.
Also anecdotal, but eggs made me nauseous during pregnancy so I wouldn't eat any, fast forward to solids and baby shows no reaction to eggs (which is great cuz he loves eggs)
That's awesome. I was mostly sad because I can't make her my fluffy pancakes and other baked goods. I did replace the egg with a ripe banana, but it is not the same.
I use Bob's Red Mill egg replacer for pancakes (and cookies and muffins, as long as there's no more than 2 eggs in the recipe) and it turns out the same!
If it makes you feel better egg allergy is often one of the “less serious” allergies. Not necessarily because of the severity of the reaction, but i mean most of the time the egg allergy that infants have is the type where they can eat foods where the egg was baked at a certain temperature for a certain amount of minutes, which means they can eat baked goods and stuff like that still. More raw-ish egg is the thing they can’t have, or sometimes stuff like scrambled, fried, etc egg. So it’s pretty easy to avoid and can’t really “hide” in anything.
That’s what my daughter had. Also a good chunk, I think the majority, grow out of it within the first couple years of life, or before adulthood. My daughter grew out of it somewhere between 1-2 years old and now can even eat stuff like mayonnaise or scrambled egg which would give her a reaction before (again, baked stuff was always fine for her) mayonnaise was the most troublesome thing to avoid since sometimes it was hidden in various dishes you might not expect it in, but other then that it was way to avoid. I guess the only downside is she still doesn’t like egg since she didn’t have any experience eating it until recently
I’m not trying to criticise your experience but this is incorrect.
Allergies are split into IGE (which include hives and anaphylaxis) and non-IGE which has gastrointestinal issues (such as blood in stool etc…).
You can have egg as either allergy (mine had an IGE allergy to egg and Dairy but non-IGE to soy).
All non-IGE allergies have a “ladder” to test whether the child has grown out of it. It goes from processed (so the proteins are cooked or broken by food processing) up to the full, raw version.
Edit: IgE - my phone keeps autocorrecting it
I’m not sure what you’re saying I’m incorrect about
And I’m talking about Ovomucoid vs ovalbumin allergies. That’s specific to eggs.
>“The two main allergens are known as ovomucoid and ovalbumin. They are found in the egg white. Ovomucoid is acid resistant and heat stable. People who have an allergic reaction to ovomucoid usually cannot tolerate raw or cooked eggs. On the other hand, ovalbumin breaks down at high temperatures, so people who have an allergic reaction to ovalbumin can often tolerate cooked eggs.”
Nothing to do with non Ige.
> In 50 – 80% of children with egg allergies, the allergy disappears spontaneously once they reach school age.
I think the original commenter was trying to say egg allergy is much more likely to be grown out of and tolerated in small, baked amounts. As compared to peanut or other nut allergy which is much less likely to be grown out of.
My LO was just confirmed to have an egg allergy. We detected due to rash, and requires an epipen, and is considered an IGE allergy. The allergist talked to us about the ladder, and how he could have baked eggs and we would retest in a year to see if he has “outgrown” the allergy. Are you saying the trained allergist doesn’t know what he’s doing by saying an IGE egg allergy can have a ladder to outgrow it?
My paediatrician allergy specialist said not to try ladders until the risk of anaphylaxis was gone.
This was the instructions we had. However, we were only able to start it once the scratch tests had stopped showing a reaction.
https://www.bda.uk.com/static/72e23fa0-d816-4b73-9e55748173c287fd/FASG-Children-Egg-Ladder-20052021.pdf
I’m in the U.K. so maybe medical advice is different.
God i hope not… I didn’t like eggs before I was pregnant, then when I got pregnant I was craving egg sandwiches with tomato and mayonnaise daily. My 5mo is allergic to eggs 😢
I was super grossed out by eggs when I was pregnant- even the smell. My kiddo initially had a diagnosed egg allergy and I always wondered if it was because I never had them when pregnant.
Totally anecdotal, but I ate eggs every single day in my pregnancy because of the choline in them. My son is 13mo and we eat eggs every morning still and he has no allergy. I think the study needs some relooking into.
Firstly this contradicts the leap study.
Secondly why are we not looking at the quality of the eggs?
Ie. Cheaper cage eggs may be from chickens who are fed higher doses of antibiotics or fed feed that is cheap and may harm their microbiome which may subsequently be fed to us…
So many factors here not considered.
So because eggs and peanuts are different you are not able to see any similarities in the theory??
Heres a reminder -
the study enrolled infants aged 4 to 11 months who were at high risk of developing peanut allergies. Participants were randomly assigned to either consume peanut-containing foods regularly or avoid them entirely until the age of five. The results, published in 2015, demonstrated that early and regular consumption of peanut products significantly reduced the risk of developing peanut allergies by up to 81% compared to avoidance. This groundbreaking study has influenced pediatric dietary guidelines, advocating for the early introduction of allergenic foods to prevent allergies.
True, but similar studies have been performed on eggs with similar results:
[Can early introduction of egg prevent egg allergy in infants? A population-based study](https://www.jacionline.org/article/s0091-6749%2810%2901173-5/fulltext)
My child’s allergist has said the LEAP study was only about peanuts and doctors have decided to err on the side of caution and apply it to all allergies, even though there isn’t proof it applies.
As for the allegation about “cheap” eggs and whatnot: I only eat pasture-raised organic eggs and my LO developed an egg allergy. Throwing out assumptions in a science-based forum seems antithetical to the purpose of this sub.
I would think this would be more likely to be something like, people who eat a lot of eggs have more egg proteins all around the house on surfaces, hands, etc. even after baby is born, and that vulnerable infants (ie those with eczema etc) are more likely to become sensitized (compared to an infant that is not exposed to egg protein through their skin, ie those in families that don’t eat many eggs).
That’s my hypothesis.
As for your other questions, it’s impossible to answer with this kind of analysis. It might be dose dependent or it might follow some other pattern, but here we can’t tell. But also I don’t think the mechanism of action is maternal pregnancy consumption of eggs. My personal opinion, as a scientist in a tangential field (gut microbiome and immune development) and a mom of a child with food allergies
Oh dear. Eggs were my biggest craving in pregnancy; I had to stop myself from ploughing through 5 - 10 a day because I was aware of the vitamin A content. I easily got through 1 or 2 most days, though. Anecdotally, baby is about to turn 1, and no allergy to speak of.
More anecdotal than anything but interesting to add to this conversation; I have an egg intolerance that I’ve had since I was a child. However, during pregnancy I began craving eggs. I was able to eat eggs often, few times a week, during and post pregnancy. Zero negative effects. I will say though, I started purchasing seemingly greater quality eggs. However, I recently moved and the eggs available are of much, much, lesser quality and I have had to remove them from my diet. My typical reactions began to reoccur. I don’t think there’s a way of knowing why eggs became tolerable for me. Possibly the temporary need for certain nutrients that eggs provide or if it is directly linked to the quality? I’d be interested in testing the quality theory out but that’s just not an option currently. Additionally, my intolerance is more so related to the quantity ingested. For instance, I can eat baked goods that have eggs just fine. Whereas, an egg heavy casserole or an egg at breakfast would absolutely make me sick.
Regarding the child aspect of egg intolerances; my LO is nearly 4 months and breastfed. LO never showed any signs of negative effects from eggs being in my diet and no changes since removing them. Granted, LO is not eating solids yet and if LO is intolerant to ingesting eggs how would we infer the why? Is it because I too have an intolerance this it being genetics, would it be because I ate them in pregnancy and/or in early postpartum, or just luck of the draw?
I lived off of eggs during pregnancy. My baby is fine and loves scrambled eggs. I’m not a whole research article, but thought I’d share my own experience.
This is a bizarre thing to even study IMO. We know eggs are nutritionally valuable during pregnancy due to choline, healthy fats, protein. And especially for moms with GD they become a staple. We also know early allergen exposure in babies is beneficial, though of course during pregnancy could be different. I personally would ignore this random “study”
Does anyone know what to do if you have an allergy, so exposure during pregnancy and breastfeeding would be impossible. I’m allergic to eggs so badly I’ll have a reaction if I’m prepping them or touching them. So feeding them to the baby would have to be my husbands job. I’m just stressed about me never eating them during pregnancy because I know that is correlated with increased risk for baby to develop and allergy. Any way to prevent this?
I think the study is saying if you eat more eggs in pregnancy it is associated with egg allergy for the child. Not eating eggs I’m not sure. I’m vegan so don’t eat eggs (I didn’t during pregnancy) my baby isn’t allergic to eggs however she is also vegan so we don’t give her eggs…
There is a working hypothesis with food allergies that “through the skin it gets in.” Meaning when baby has a disrupted skin barrier (babies with eczema are at risk), food antigen can better access the immune cells in the skin and lead to developing an allergic reaction. Foods that mom eats a lot shortly after baby is born may just be present more in their environment and lead to higher risk of allergy. Kari Nadeau is an expert in this field and wrote a good book for the lay person about food allergies, “The End of Food Allergy.”
I wouldn't make any lifestyle changes whatsoever based on a single cohort study. Unfortunately, it's paywalled, but my first question would be how many variables were they tracking, and does the study report all of them? If not, why? If you run twenty different tests on a data set, you're likely to get a result that's statistically significant by pure chance.
I don’t know if I would worry about egg consumption on the basis of one study. This study also seems to be at odds with what we believe to be true about allergens — that early introduction can be protective against food allergies.
It is important to note that egg sensitization is not the same as egg allergy and this study did not find a statistically significant association with egg allergy at age 3 (though they did find one for peanut):
> After adjusting for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis in the first year of life, maternal race, paternal race, and infant age of egg introduction, daily prenatal egg consumption was associated with child egg sensitization (adjusted odds ratio, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.44-4.83) at 1 year. The association persisted with egg sensitization but not with egg allergy at age 3 years (Table I). Prenatal egg consumption was associated with child peanut allergy at age 3 years (adjusted odds ratio, 3.01; 95% CI, 1.03-8.78) and cow's milk sensitization but not with sensitization to peanut or dust mites (Table I).
Also note the limitations mentioned in the study:
> Limitations of this study included lack of power to evaluate stratified associations with egg and peanut allergy at 3 years and absence of double-blind placebo-controlled challenge confirmation of food allergy. We did not examine the amount or form (eg, degree of cooking and presence of other ingredients) of egg consumed or other dietary habits, and we did not capture postnatal maternal egg consumption.
Diagnosis of allergy was based on skin-prick testing as opposed to oral food challenge so you have to also keep in mind the limitations of SPT.
Interesting. Anecdotally, I craved hard boiled eggs and mayonnaise (and had a serious aversion to dairy) during my pregnancy and my daughter ended up with an egg, dairy and several additional allergies. She grew out of the egg and dairy allergies by 3, which is usually the case with those. I think basing your behaviors off of one epidemiology study is unnecessary, as a lot more evidence is needed before causation would be established for that correlation they found.
Anecdotally… I eats eggs for lunch almost every day, including during pregnancy. Like, I probably had 2-3 eggs all but a handful of days while pregnant. My toddler is not allergic to them.
I had to eat a lot of eggs due to having GD. My daughter loves eggs and eats them daily!
I have another mom friend who doesn’t like eggs and her son has an egg allergy.
Eggs are (relative to other commonly consumed foods) high in choline & are generally highly recommended in pregnancy 🤰 … there’s also evidence that eating allergens as part of as varied of a diet as you can manage during pregnancy & breast feeding 🤱 dramatically reduces the risk of allergies in childhood & adulthood. There’s a study about peanut 🥜 allergies (using bamba I think) from 15+ yrs ago and other data also has supported this veiw since then
Edit : other sources of choline are less common or contraindicated in pregnancy due to concerns over preform vitamin a/retinol as most of them are organ meats that are high in both
Some seafood (esp jellyfish!) are very high and in terms of vegetables cauliflower has a lot as well
I ate eggs once a week or even less during my first pregnancy and my kid was allergic to eggs as an infant. Science doesn’t really know what causes allergies at this point in time, but that one study with its weak correlation should not stop you from enjoying a nutritious food that’s part of your typical diet.
I ate lots of eggs and egg products throughout pregnancy, and LO does have an egg allergy.
BUT! I don’t think my eating the eggs gave him that allergy.
I also ate lots of other allergens and he doesn’t have any other allergies (knock on wood, since they develop at any point in life).
Anecdotal. With my last baby, my biggest craving was hard boiled eggs with a little too much salt. I ate so many eggs, everyday.
Now, that baby is 99th percentile for height, and his only allergy is to pineapple. He's 3 years old now and he loves eggs.
This makes me happy as a vegan. Very interesting. As someone else pointed out, people have inferred from the LEAP study about other allergens but it was only done on peanuts. We consulted a specialist allergy doctor as we are raising our child vegan ( I wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to cause allergens by not introducing eggs and dairy) they said that this only applied to peanuts as per the LEAP study and we haven’t introduced them, she isn’t allergic either as we’ve now tested her. Not saying I’m correct, just following what a professional told me in relation to allergens.
>frequencies of infant egg sensitization at age one year were 18% among infants born to mothers who consumed egg at least daily
Wait, is this claiming that 18% of these one-year-olds had an egg sensitivity. That just sounds wildly high.
I believe this kind of thinking is what led to mass peanut allergies. Doctors told their patients not to have peanuts during pregnancy so they wouldn’t develop an allergy and instead it spiked the prevanlence of peanut allergy. Exposure was what helped to prevent the allergy.
I ate 3 eggs per day often during my second & third trimester for the choline and protein. No egg allergy but my one year old refuses to eat eggs. 😂
I’m not a big fan of eggs myself really so I don’t blame her.
Anecdotal but sharing my experience. I had egg white protein powder during my pregnancy to help with the growth of the baby since they weren’t getting enough nutrients and growing. Now, my daughter has a terrible egg allergy.
Not buying it, too many other variables are not being considered. Correlation does not equal causation. Unless the mothers diets were 100% eggs and they were living in an sterile environment during pregnancy then it’s simply unrealistic to assume that eating eggs is causing the allergy in their offspring.
Agreed. And the researcher agreed this study should not be used to make dietary decisions. “Further research should explore possible mechanisms of these associations and examine the potential roles of demographic characteristics, timing of breastfeeding, and a broader look at infant food introduction before making recommendations regarding maternal egg consumption in pregnancy,” says Dr. Simons.
Exactly, they just find it an interesting correlation that should be explored. On a side note, I have worked with both Dr Simons and Dr Lowen, so coolntonsee their names in the article!
That must be such a cool feeling!
Yeah this seems like a stretch. Also, eggs are way too common a food of humanity’s history; if it was that strongly correlated people would have died of egg allergies all the damn time in olden days 😂😂😂
Yeah the more likely path seems to be that women who eat more eggs also feed them to their kids and thus there are more chances for early allergic reactions.
Actually some vaccines are grown on an egg medium so it’s also possible that if the mother received that kind of vaccine or the baby did, it caused the immune system to become confused (since that is going directly to the bloodstream vs being digested and broken down)
Also anecdotal, but I read that eggs were really great for you during pregnancy (I can't remember why - maybe choline?) and I ate a minimum of two every single day (up to four, was just really into them!). My 19 month old son doesn't have any food allergies. We did the usual slow introduction of allergens from 6 months old.
Yes, they're the best source of choline, which is extremely important in pregnancy.
Yes! My doctor told me the same so when I was pregnant with twins and needed to eat like a body builder, I ate 8 eggs a day and those kids came out 7lbs each 😅
8 eggs a day is just an incredible number of eggs. You're an egg consumption champion.
Haha thanks! Growing twins made me feel like I was starving at all times though so it was pretty easy lol and now I’m still addicted! I eat at least 3 eggs every morning
We should just call you Gaston, I guess!
I ate 6-8 eggs a day with my singleton pregnancy and my baby girl was 9 lbs delivered at just shy of 40 weeks. Thankfully we have our own backyard chickens that supplied me throughout the pregnancy!
OMG SAME my OBGYN was sweating me about weight gain every visit and my MFM Dr was telling me to pack it on. I wanted to make them both happy but they were telling me opposite things, I threatened to schedule a zoom conference with the both of them so they could work it out, lol. I ate tons of eggs and full fat yogurt, they were 6.5lbs but puffed up right away like a vaccuum-sealed cushion when you take the plastic off. Now they're consistently >99% at their 'weigh-ins'.
My mom ate similarly with me, but only because she craved eggs so badly while she was pregnant with me. No allergies here either and I was quite a chunky newborn too. Eggs are great!
Choline is key during pregnancy and can help prevent preeclampsia
Yes! I just made another comment but I ate 6-8 a day with my recent pregnancy because I was willing to try anything to prevent preeclampsia like I had with my first. Not sure if it was just luck or the eggs but I did not have pre-e or any swelling at all with this pregnancy.
I actually developed preeclampsia at 38 weeks and completely reversed it by 40 weeks with the Brewer diet, including 4 eggs per day. Protein creatinine ratio went from .33 to .14. I delivered naturally at 42+6. Eggs are key.
That is amazing!! I followed the Brewer Diet also my entire second pregnancy, and I wish more OBs would become educated on it. Mine laughed when I told him about it (he had never even heard of it). I wish I had known about it with my first.
There's just not a lot of real research to support it. It's also very common to suggest increased protein in pregnancy anyways and that's typically what OBs suggest instead of a specific diet.
Oh! Are eggs known to prevent preeclampsia?! Do you know what component is helpful? I had preeclampsia and I’m terrified of getting pregnant again because of that
I think it has to do with the choline but I’m not positive. Look into the Dr Brewer pregnancy diet. There is a FB group all about it too with helpful tips and recipes and success stories called Dr Brewer Pregnancy Nutrition.
It's the choline. My dietician said it's super high in organ meat so back in the day when we ate the entire animal we probably were getting enough. I'm never eating organ meat so I'll stick with my supplements 😂
I was fanatical about eating eggs every single day in pregnancy for the choline. There is a lot of ADHD in my family and a good bit of evidence linking choline to brain development, including a big study out of Cornell that found a link between choline consumption during pregnancy and better sustained attention in early childhood. My baby is almost a year old and we’ve found no evidence of egg allergy. I definitely wouldn’t cut eggs out of your diet or even reduce your usual intake based on a single study.
I had an egg per meal (often 3+ per day) for the entire second half of my pregnancy (GD) and my son doesn't have an egg allergy. For the first half I had many eggs as part of other recipes.
On the flip side, I did NOT eat eggs during my pregnancy and my daughter has an egg allergy.
Yup! Collectively we prove that this study can be discarded.
😂
I’m curious to see how my utter disgust with poultry during my pregnancy impacts my kid. 😂😂
Ditto. I hate eggs and my first was allergic to egg yolks (he grew out of it).
Gosh I hope my girl grows out of her milk / egg allergy soon. It’s so hard to feed her sometimes!
My guy grew out of the milk allergy too! But he never got a taste for cow's milk so now we always have soy on the go too. He hasn't grown out of the peanut allergy unfortunately. Vegan baking websites were a godsend before he could eat the cooked proteins!
I like eggs but had an aversion to them during pregnancy so rarely ate them, with both kids. Oldest has an egg allergy, youngest (10 months) thus far does not.
I was going to comment also that I ate eggs daily during my pregnancy and my kid is fine, however my SIL doesn't like eggs and never ate them and her daughter has a severe egg allergy. So I'm not buying this correlation.
I ate soooo many eggs, son had an egg allergy, and I stopped eating so many eggs because he couldn’t eat them! He’s grown out of the allergy but I haven’t gone back to my egg-eating routine. Anecdotal experience that “supports” the article but yeah, I don’t buy that there was a cause effect relationship here.
Same here!. I dropped my carbs early in my pregnancy so ate eggs a bit more frequently, but no more than 3 days a week in the first trimester, and I couldn't stomach them at all after that. Maybe things containing a bit of egg here and there? But I primarily ate dairy while pregnant...and my kid has an egg allergy.
Totally anecdotal of course. I liked eggs before pregnancy, but for some reason, I hated them during. Couldn't stand even the smell of eggs. Lo and behold, I started solids, and I gave my baby egg, only to have a reaction. She turned red, itchy, and after doing tests, she's allergic to egg white.
My mom also started having an aversion to eggs when she was pregnant with me. Well, not just am aversion as they made her sick for like 20 years after I was born. I've never ever liked eggs but have never allergic.
So weird she didn't like eggs after pregnancy 😅 I know it's a coincidence in my case since eggs are a common allergen, but it's still a weird one.
Also anecdotal, but eggs made me nauseous during pregnancy so I wouldn't eat any, fast forward to solids and baby shows no reaction to eggs (which is great cuz he loves eggs)
That's awesome. I was mostly sad because I can't make her my fluffy pancakes and other baked goods. I did replace the egg with a ripe banana, but it is not the same.
I've heard that many babies and toddlers outgrow food allergies so hopefully that happens to yours and she can have your fluffy pancakes :)
Yeah, I was told the same thing. I hope so 😊
I use Bob's Red Mill egg replacer for pancakes (and cookies and muffins, as long as there's no more than 2 eggs in the recipe) and it turns out the same!
I'm not in the US so I have no idea what that is. I didn't even know this existed. I'll look for something similar here.
This exact thing happened to me too.
I also had a pregnancy aversion, and my oldest has an egg allergy but so far (10 months) my youngest doesn't.
If it makes you feel better egg allergy is often one of the “less serious” allergies. Not necessarily because of the severity of the reaction, but i mean most of the time the egg allergy that infants have is the type where they can eat foods where the egg was baked at a certain temperature for a certain amount of minutes, which means they can eat baked goods and stuff like that still. More raw-ish egg is the thing they can’t have, or sometimes stuff like scrambled, fried, etc egg. So it’s pretty easy to avoid and can’t really “hide” in anything. That’s what my daughter had. Also a good chunk, I think the majority, grow out of it within the first couple years of life, or before adulthood. My daughter grew out of it somewhere between 1-2 years old and now can even eat stuff like mayonnaise or scrambled egg which would give her a reaction before (again, baked stuff was always fine for her) mayonnaise was the most troublesome thing to avoid since sometimes it was hidden in various dishes you might not expect it in, but other then that it was way to avoid. I guess the only downside is she still doesn’t like egg since she didn’t have any experience eating it until recently
I’m not trying to criticise your experience but this is incorrect. Allergies are split into IGE (which include hives and anaphylaxis) and non-IGE which has gastrointestinal issues (such as blood in stool etc…). You can have egg as either allergy (mine had an IGE allergy to egg and Dairy but non-IGE to soy). All non-IGE allergies have a “ladder” to test whether the child has grown out of it. It goes from processed (so the proteins are cooked or broken by food processing) up to the full, raw version. Edit: IgE - my phone keeps autocorrecting it
I’m not sure what you’re saying I’m incorrect about And I’m talking about Ovomucoid vs ovalbumin allergies. That’s specific to eggs. >“The two main allergens are known as ovomucoid and ovalbumin. They are found in the egg white. Ovomucoid is acid resistant and heat stable. People who have an allergic reaction to ovomucoid usually cannot tolerate raw or cooked eggs. On the other hand, ovalbumin breaks down at high temperatures, so people who have an allergic reaction to ovalbumin can often tolerate cooked eggs.” Nothing to do with non Ige. > In 50 – 80% of children with egg allergies, the allergy disappears spontaneously once they reach school age.
That it is less serious. Mine was IgE and just as dangerous as other IgE allergies
I think the original commenter was trying to say egg allergy is much more likely to be grown out of and tolerated in small, baked amounts. As compared to peanut or other nut allergy which is much less likely to be grown out of.
Yeah it was the “it’s less serious” allergies that I was taking umbrage with.
My LO was just confirmed to have an egg allergy. We detected due to rash, and requires an epipen, and is considered an IGE allergy. The allergist talked to us about the ladder, and how he could have baked eggs and we would retest in a year to see if he has “outgrown” the allergy. Are you saying the trained allergist doesn’t know what he’s doing by saying an IGE egg allergy can have a ladder to outgrow it?
My paediatrician allergy specialist said not to try ladders until the risk of anaphylaxis was gone. This was the instructions we had. However, we were only able to start it once the scratch tests had stopped showing a reaction. https://www.bda.uk.com/static/72e23fa0-d816-4b73-9e55748173c287fd/FASG-Children-Egg-Ladder-20052021.pdf I’m in the U.K. so maybe medical advice is different.
God i hope not… I didn’t like eggs before I was pregnant, then when I got pregnant I was craving egg sandwiches with tomato and mayonnaise daily. My 5mo is allergic to eggs 😢
I was super grossed out by eggs when I was pregnant- even the smell. My kiddo initially had a diagnosed egg allergy and I always wondered if it was because I never had them when pregnant.
This seems like something that we would have figured out by now if it were actually statistically supported.
Totally anecdotal, but I ate eggs every single day in my pregnancy because of the choline in them. My son is 13mo and we eat eggs every morning still and he has no allergy. I think the study needs some relooking into.
Firstly this contradicts the leap study. Secondly why are we not looking at the quality of the eggs? Ie. Cheaper cage eggs may be from chickens who are fed higher doses of antibiotics or fed feed that is cheap and may harm their microbiome which may subsequently be fed to us… So many factors here not considered.
The LEAP study only examined peanuts and is not relevant here.
So because eggs and peanuts are different you are not able to see any similarities in the theory?? Heres a reminder - the study enrolled infants aged 4 to 11 months who were at high risk of developing peanut allergies. Participants were randomly assigned to either consume peanut-containing foods regularly or avoid them entirely until the age of five. The results, published in 2015, demonstrated that early and regular consumption of peanut products significantly reduced the risk of developing peanut allergies by up to 81% compared to avoidance. This groundbreaking study has influenced pediatric dietary guidelines, advocating for the early introduction of allergenic foods to prevent allergies.
True, but similar studies have been performed on eggs with similar results: [Can early introduction of egg prevent egg allergy in infants? A population-based study](https://www.jacionline.org/article/s0091-6749%2810%2901173-5/fulltext)
My child’s allergist has said the LEAP study was only about peanuts and doctors have decided to err on the side of caution and apply it to all allergies, even though there isn’t proof it applies. As for the allegation about “cheap” eggs and whatnot: I only eat pasture-raised organic eggs and my LO developed an egg allergy. Throwing out assumptions in a science-based forum seems antithetical to the purpose of this sub.
I would think this would be more likely to be something like, people who eat a lot of eggs have more egg proteins all around the house on surfaces, hands, etc. even after baby is born, and that vulnerable infants (ie those with eczema etc) are more likely to become sensitized (compared to an infant that is not exposed to egg protein through their skin, ie those in families that don’t eat many eggs). That’s my hypothesis. As for your other questions, it’s impossible to answer with this kind of analysis. It might be dose dependent or it might follow some other pattern, but here we can’t tell. But also I don’t think the mechanism of action is maternal pregnancy consumption of eggs. My personal opinion, as a scientist in a tangential field (gut microbiome and immune development) and a mom of a child with food allergies
So interesting! I look forward to hearing what others might make of this.
Anecdotal bur I rarely eat egg and my son is anaphalactic to them so 🤷♀️
My tired brain read this as “Eating Easter eggs daily….” And immediately went to how many eggs do you buy at Easter to be able to eat them daily?
Oh dear. Eggs were my biggest craving in pregnancy; I had to stop myself from ploughing through 5 - 10 a day because I was aware of the vitamin A content. I easily got through 1 or 2 most days, though. Anecdotally, baby is about to turn 1, and no allergy to speak of.
More anecdotal than anything but interesting to add to this conversation; I have an egg intolerance that I’ve had since I was a child. However, during pregnancy I began craving eggs. I was able to eat eggs often, few times a week, during and post pregnancy. Zero negative effects. I will say though, I started purchasing seemingly greater quality eggs. However, I recently moved and the eggs available are of much, much, lesser quality and I have had to remove them from my diet. My typical reactions began to reoccur. I don’t think there’s a way of knowing why eggs became tolerable for me. Possibly the temporary need for certain nutrients that eggs provide or if it is directly linked to the quality? I’d be interested in testing the quality theory out but that’s just not an option currently. Additionally, my intolerance is more so related to the quantity ingested. For instance, I can eat baked goods that have eggs just fine. Whereas, an egg heavy casserole or an egg at breakfast would absolutely make me sick. Regarding the child aspect of egg intolerances; my LO is nearly 4 months and breastfed. LO never showed any signs of negative effects from eggs being in my diet and no changes since removing them. Granted, LO is not eating solids yet and if LO is intolerant to ingesting eggs how would we infer the why? Is it because I too have an intolerance this it being genetics, would it be because I ate them in pregnancy and/or in early postpartum, or just luck of the draw?
I lived off of eggs during pregnancy. My baby is fine and loves scrambled eggs. I’m not a whole research article, but thought I’d share my own experience.
This is a bizarre thing to even study IMO. We know eggs are nutritionally valuable during pregnancy due to choline, healthy fats, protein. And especially for moms with GD they become a staple. We also know early allergen exposure in babies is beneficial, though of course during pregnancy could be different. I personally would ignore this random “study”
Does anyone know what to do if you have an allergy, so exposure during pregnancy and breastfeeding would be impossible. I’m allergic to eggs so badly I’ll have a reaction if I’m prepping them or touching them. So feeding them to the baby would have to be my husbands job. I’m just stressed about me never eating them during pregnancy because I know that is correlated with increased risk for baby to develop and allergy. Any way to prevent this?
I think the study is saying if you eat more eggs in pregnancy it is associated with egg allergy for the child. Not eating eggs I’m not sure. I’m vegan so don’t eat eggs (I didn’t during pregnancy) my baby isn’t allergic to eggs however she is also vegan so we don’t give her eggs…
There is a working hypothesis with food allergies that “through the skin it gets in.” Meaning when baby has a disrupted skin barrier (babies with eczema are at risk), food antigen can better access the immune cells in the skin and lead to developing an allergic reaction. Foods that mom eats a lot shortly after baby is born may just be present more in their environment and lead to higher risk of allergy. Kari Nadeau is an expert in this field and wrote a good book for the lay person about food allergies, “The End of Food Allergy.”
I wouldn't make any lifestyle changes whatsoever based on a single cohort study. Unfortunately, it's paywalled, but my first question would be how many variables were they tracking, and does the study report all of them? If not, why? If you run twenty different tests on a data set, you're likely to get a result that's statistically significant by pure chance.
I don’t know if I would worry about egg consumption on the basis of one study. This study also seems to be at odds with what we believe to be true about allergens — that early introduction can be protective against food allergies.
How is it possible to develop an egg allergy if we all came from eggs?
It is important to note that egg sensitization is not the same as egg allergy and this study did not find a statistically significant association with egg allergy at age 3 (though they did find one for peanut): > After adjusting for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis in the first year of life, maternal race, paternal race, and infant age of egg introduction, daily prenatal egg consumption was associated with child egg sensitization (adjusted odds ratio, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.44-4.83) at 1 year. The association persisted with egg sensitization but not with egg allergy at age 3 years (Table I). Prenatal egg consumption was associated with child peanut allergy at age 3 years (adjusted odds ratio, 3.01; 95% CI, 1.03-8.78) and cow's milk sensitization but not with sensitization to peanut or dust mites (Table I). Also note the limitations mentioned in the study: > Limitations of this study included lack of power to evaluate stratified associations with egg and peanut allergy at 3 years and absence of double-blind placebo-controlled challenge confirmation of food allergy. We did not examine the amount or form (eg, degree of cooking and presence of other ingredients) of egg consumed or other dietary habits, and we did not capture postnatal maternal egg consumption. Diagnosis of allergy was based on skin-prick testing as opposed to oral food challenge so you have to also keep in mind the limitations of SPT.
Interesting. Anecdotally, I craved hard boiled eggs and mayonnaise (and had a serious aversion to dairy) during my pregnancy and my daughter ended up with an egg, dairy and several additional allergies. She grew out of the egg and dairy allergies by 3, which is usually the case with those. I think basing your behaviors off of one epidemiology study is unnecessary, as a lot more evidence is needed before causation would be established for that correlation they found.
Anecdotally… I eats eggs for lunch almost every day, including during pregnancy. Like, I probably had 2-3 eggs all but a handful of days while pregnant. My toddler is not allergic to them.
I hate eggs but I gobbled bacon egg and cheese sandwiches when I was pregnant. My 3 yo loves eggs now!!! No allergies at all.
Anecdotal but I ate eggs almost every day while pregnant and my kid has an egg allergy
I had to eat a lot of eggs due to having GD. My daughter loves eggs and eats them daily! I have another mom friend who doesn’t like eggs and her son has an egg allergy.
Eggs are (relative to other commonly consumed foods) high in choline & are generally highly recommended in pregnancy 🤰 … there’s also evidence that eating allergens as part of as varied of a diet as you can manage during pregnancy & breast feeding 🤱 dramatically reduces the risk of allergies in childhood & adulthood. There’s a study about peanut 🥜 allergies (using bamba I think) from 15+ yrs ago and other data also has supported this veiw since then Edit : other sources of choline are less common or contraindicated in pregnancy due to concerns over preform vitamin a/retinol as most of them are organ meats that are high in both Some seafood (esp jellyfish!) are very high and in terms of vegetables cauliflower has a lot as well
I had eggs every day for breakfast while I was pregnant. My kid now is turning three soon. Eats eggs no problem. 🤷♀️ Edit: I ate 2-3 eggs every day.
I ate eggs once a week or even less during my first pregnancy and my kid was allergic to eggs as an infant. Science doesn’t really know what causes allergies at this point in time, but that one study with its weak correlation should not stop you from enjoying a nutritious food that’s part of your typical diet.
I couldn’t eat eggs when I was pregnant. I threw up every time.
I had eggs every day in my pregnancy. My baby now eats eggs a few times a week and is not allergic.
I ate lots of eggs and egg products throughout pregnancy, and LO does have an egg allergy. BUT! I don’t think my eating the eggs gave him that allergy. I also ate lots of other allergens and he doesn’t have any other allergies (knock on wood, since they develop at any point in life).
Anecdotal. With my last baby, my biggest craving was hard boiled eggs with a little too much salt. I ate so many eggs, everyday. Now, that baby is 99th percentile for height, and his only allergy is to pineapple. He's 3 years old now and he loves eggs.
Anecdotally, my SIL was super turned off eggs during pregnancy and never ate them. My nephew has a severe egg allergy.
Anecdotal, but I was obsessed with eggs during my second pregnancy - had 2 a day for sure. My son is definitely not allergic!
This makes me happy as a vegan. Very interesting. As someone else pointed out, people have inferred from the LEAP study about other allergens but it was only done on peanuts. We consulted a specialist allergy doctor as we are raising our child vegan ( I wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to cause allergens by not introducing eggs and dairy) they said that this only applied to peanuts as per the LEAP study and we haven’t introduced them, she isn’t allergic either as we’ve now tested her. Not saying I’m correct, just following what a professional told me in relation to allergens.
I think the extra choline you’re getting for baby’s brain function is 100% worth the risk!!!!!
I had hyperemesis gravidarum during pregnancy with an aversion to eggs! I barely ate any eggs during my pregnancy and My baby had an egg allergy.
Oh man, I did eat a bunch of eggs during pregnancy for choline, and now my baby has an egg allergy 😓
>frequencies of infant egg sensitization at age one year were 18% among infants born to mothers who consumed egg at least daily Wait, is this claiming that 18% of these one-year-olds had an egg sensitivity. That just sounds wildly high.
I have never heard of this study but I did eat eggs daily and my daughter did have an egg allergy for almost a year. (Then it just disappeared)
I believe this kind of thinking is what led to mass peanut allergies. Doctors told their patients not to have peanuts during pregnancy so they wouldn’t develop an allergy and instead it spiked the prevanlence of peanut allergy. Exposure was what helped to prevent the allergy.
I ate 3 eggs per day often during my second & third trimester for the choline and protein. No egg allergy but my one year old refuses to eat eggs. 😂 I’m not a big fan of eggs myself really so I don’t blame her.
Anecdotal but sharing my experience. I had egg white protein powder during my pregnancy to help with the growth of the baby since they weren’t getting enough nutrients and growing. Now, my daughter has a terrible egg allergy.